It has been nearly three weeks since one of California's most devastating wildfires began, triggering an immense effort to combat the blaze and mitigate further damage. As firefighters work to contain the remaining flames, the city braces for its first significant winter rainfall, raising concerns about flooding and landslides that may exacerbate the already extensive destruction.
Amid these challenges, the wildfire has spurred widespread reflection at local and global levels. Discussions have emerged on topics such as the insurance system, firefighting infrastructure, water resources, global warming's role in high-wind fire conditions, and the impact of landscape design, particularly the use of non-native vegetation.
Devastating wildfires across Los Angelesa have resulted in widespread destruction, displacing thousands of residents, and necessitating a rapid and efficient rebuilding process. Two executive orders have been issued to expedite the rebuilding process, one by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and another by California Governor Newsom, both intending to remove significant regulatory hurdles and expedite project approvals.
As part of a wider design-led revitalization process, Türkiye Design Council has announced a new urban plan for the revitalization of Antakya and the wider Hatay province in Türkiye, an area heavily affected by the Türkiye-Syria earthquake on 6 February 2023. The master plan has been developed by Foster + Partners, Buro Happold, MIC-HUB, along with Turkish practices DB Architects, and KEYM Urban Renewal Centre. The plan covers a 30-square-kilometer area of Antakya, the capital district of Hatay, and an important urban center of antiquity known as Antioch. Eight design principles have been outlined to guide the rebuilding efforts in an attempt to maintain the spirit of the city, which suffered extensive damages estimated at 80 percent.
Courtesy of SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN PLANNING, NANJING UNIVERSITY
Reading a book is commonly seen as an individual activity, yet libraries have evolved to offer more than just book-lending services in the digital age. Public libraries have transformed into contemporary community centers, offering various social engagement opportunities while utilizing minimal urban space. Emphasizing the importance of building a sense of community, these institutions prioritize connecting individuals with common interests.
Housing Salinas - For Everyday.Life. Image Courtesy of For Everyday.Life
United Kingdom-based office For Everyday.Life (FEL) is one of the three selected winners for the Open Category of ICON’s Initiative 99, an open competition aiming to promote affordable home designs that can be built for under $99,000 employing ICON’s 3D printing technologies. FEL’s project, titled “Housing Salinas,” focuses on community living while applying principles of long-term sustainability, and social and environmental responsibility.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) accounts for over one-tenth of the global population, approximately 800 million people, practicing urban agriculture worldwide. In the United States, millions of citizens lack access to supermarkets. Urban farmers play a crucial role in addressing food security issues in American cities.
Historically, the distance between rural and urban areas has never been greater, making traditionally rural food sources widely inaccessible. Cities initially would develop around centralized markets that brought produce from farmlands to urban centers. Today, urban agriculture is revitalizing this connection between city dwellers and agricultural products.
On first impression, Quarticciolo is a handsome district in Rome. A human-scaled public housing complex comprising red and yellow midrise buildings arranged around internal courtyards and gardens. Designed by architect Roberto Nicolini during the Fascist regime, this village feel isn’t found in the massive postwar residential schemes elsewhere in the capital. Like other rationalist architects, Nicolini was inspired by the ancient city. Basing the layout on a classical orthogonal grid pattern, he allowed just one tall structure, the Casa del Fascio (the Fascist party headquarters), a fortress tower that looms over the main square. Most of the buildings were constructed between 1938 and 1943 to house a working-class population that was forcibly moved from Rome’s historic center to the outskirts to make way for Mussolini’s grand public works.
https://www.archdaily.com/994464/rebuilding-and-destigmatizing-romes-quarticciolo-neighborhoodMarina Engel
Home to architectural styles spanning almost three hundred years, the is no city like New Orleans. The meld of French, Spanish, and Caribbean architectural influences, in conjunction with the demands of the hot and humid climate, has impacted the urban fabric as much as the culture itself. Located along the Mississippi River and close to the Gulf of Mexico coast, the construction of ports, NOLA’s trading history, and forceful natural phenomena like Hurricane Katrina in 2005 illustrate how water has shaped the city.
Following Hurricane Katrina, Orleans adapted its values to respond to the changing needs of its recovering community. Although reconstruction is not only architectural responsibility, New Orleanspublic architecture has contributed to revitalizing and reinhabiting the city after the disaster. Museums, parks, and churches, each of these places connects people to each other in ways that define and support community.
Of the four types of recovery facing American cities and towns—disaster, sprawl, disinvestment, and the recovery of community for those fleeing climate change—the recovery of places from serious disinvestment arguably gets the least amount of press today. But with reasonable effort, it’s the recovery type most likely to bear fruit. This is true for several reasons, beginning with the likelihood that many of the bones of sustainable placemaking are still in place. Newly built places, even if skillfully designed, often face the criticism of “lack of authenticity,” whereas places recovering from disinvestment abound with authentic scars from decades of distress. And places with humble origins were usually built in smaller increments than once-wealthy places, so the tighter rhythms of such places are inherently more interesting than those of grander scale early in recovery.
Sundance Square, a new central place for the city of Fort Worth, TX, USA. Image Courtesy of PPS
Public spaces play a significant role in organizing the life of every community but defining what differentiates them from other spaces within the city is not an easy task. Once these spaces start to settle into the collective memory of the local communities, they become key elements that concentrate the mental image of a city. While this process usually happens with urban spaces, monuments and isolated architectural elements can also become markers for the urban life of an area. So, what happens when dramatic events like fires, war, or even the pandemic alter that image?
Still rebuilding after the catastrophic tsunami of 2011, Toyo Ito, Kazuyo Sejima, and other notable Japanese architects, have teamed up on the "Home for All" project to provide community-focused housing to disaster-stricken communities. While the architect-driven initiative seems to be a success, Edwin Heathcote of the Financial Times asks in this exquisitely well-written article: are a set of "starchitects" the right team for the job? (Spoiler: Yes)
https://www.archdaily.com/453967/reconstructing-space-reconstructing-community-in-japanKatherine Allen
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, design charettes involving the Gulf coast community led to many proposals, ranging from the large-scale (establishing Gulfport as a major harbor city) to the more personal (bike paths). Eight years after the fact, many of these projects are still in progress, or have yet to begin - but the outlook remains bright. The Sun-Herald's Michael Newsom explores the background behind these efforts, and explains the hurdles they’ve faced along the way. Read the full piece here.
https://www.archdaily.com/428866/eight-years-later-a-post-katrina-report-cardKatherine Allen
._Image_by_Zupagrafika.jpg?1653259487 "Orła Białego prefab panel estate in Poznań (Brutal Poland). . Image © Zupagrafika")
